Missing in action... but still married 80yrs on
A COUPLE who seemed destined to be parted decades ago first by war, then by illness, have celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary.
Charles Higgs, 101, and wife Edith, 99, met in 1939 weeks before the start of the Second World War.
They married the following year. Charles, who was in the Royal
Engineers in the Army and was sent off to fight, was listed as missing in action for a month in 1940.
Luckily, he returned to Britain safe and sound. After the war, Charles had major surgery in his 30s and was warned by docs he would not live a long life.
He was urged to leave London for some “fresh air”, so the couple moved to Penrith, Cumbria, in 1960.
Edith said the secret of their long marriage is: “Just loving him.”
Charles moved into a residential home in lockdown due to ill health.
Edith, who decided to move in too, said: “I couldn’t be apart from him.” The great-grandparents celebrated their oak wedding anniversary with family sitting outside the home in Penrith.
Charles, who ran a building and decorating firm, is the UK’s longest known survivor of Crohn’s disease.
He reckons homegrown food cooked by ex-BBC canteen boss Edith has helped him live so long.